PLANNING AND BUILDING CONTROL (PETITION FOR REDRESS)

Transcription

1 S E L E C T C O M M I T T E E O F T Y N W A L D C O U R T O F F I C I A L R E P O R T R E C O R T Y S O I K O I L B I N G E R L H E H T I N V A A L P R O C E E D I N G S D A A L T Y N PLANNING AND BUILDING CONTROL (PETITION FOR REDRESS) HANSARD Douglas, Thursday, 25th February 2016 PP2016/0042 PBC, No. 1 All published Official Reports can be found on the Tynwald website: Published by the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald, Legislative Buildings, Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3PW. High Court of Tynwald, 2016

2 Members Present: Chairman: Mr C C Thomas MHK Hon S C Rodan SHK Mr J Joughin MHK Clerk: Mrs J Corkish Contents Procedural... 3 EVIDENCE OF Mr P D Jenkins and Mrs K A Jenkins... 3 The Committee adjourned at a.m PBC

3 Select Committee of Tynwald on Planning and Building Control (Petition for Redress) The Committee sat in public at a.m. in the Legislative Council Chamber, Legislative Buildings, Douglas [MR THOMAS in the Chair] Procedural 5 10 The Chairman (Mr Thomas): Good morning, Mr and Mrs Jenkins, and welcome to this public meeting of the Select Committee of Tynwald on Planning and Building Control Petition for Redress. My name is Chris Thomas; I am chairing this Committee. With me are Steve Rodan, the Speaker of the House of Keys; Mr Jon Joughin MHK; and our Clerk, Mrs Jo Corkish. Can you please ensure that mobiles are switched off or on silent so we do not have any interruptions. For the purposes of Hansard I will be ensuring that we do not have two people speaking at once. As you know, the Committee was established by Tynwald on 17th November 2015 with a remit to consider and report to Tynwald on the Petition for Redress of Philip Donald and Kirrie Ann Jenkins your Petition which was presented at St John s on 7th July 2014 in relation to the ambiguity and weaknesses in the practices and laws relating to planning, building control and connected matters. EVIDENCE OF Mr P D Jenkins and Mrs K A Jenkins Q1. The Chairman: Mr and Mrs Jenkins, I would like to welcome you here today and start by thanking you for coming along this morning and giving us the opportunity to ask you questions about the concerns you have with the processes that you have been involved with during your planning applications. Thank you also for your very clear written submission, which we have read carefully and which will be available to the public on the Committee s website later. We have some questions for you about that, but we would like to start by giving you the opportunity to mention anything else that you did not include in that written submission and also to advise of any further developments since you wrote to us in December. Later on we will be going through questions relating to your submission chronologically, more or less. Mrs Jenkins: We would like to thank the Members for inviting us to give evidence to this Tynwald Select Committee. We fully understand that the Committee is not here to adjudicate upon a particular case. We will, however, use our own experiences to illustrate what we believe 3 PBC

4 30 35 are ambiguities and weaknesses in the practices and the laws relating to planning and building control matters. We believe these points are a matter of public interest. At the end of the process we hope to have contributed to producing a more effective system that is swift, fair and just to all. Further to our letter of 8th December 2015, in which we were invited to give a brief overview of the history and background to our Petition, we are happy to answer any questions the Committee may have and have collated submissions in support of our statements, which we would like to leave with the Members to review. (The Chairman: Okay.) If you would like me to run through them, or Q2. The Speaker: Through you, Chair, if I could just ask Mrs Jenkins: in your letter of December you said: It is currently with Minister Ronan for a decision. that is the referral back, a decision We have been given no timeframe. Work on site has stopped Are you able to update us with any information? Have you been given any timeframe for a decision? Mrs Jenkins: Well, actually, on 17th December, some 22 months after the original Planning Committee s decision to approve the application, Mr Ronan upheld our neighbour s appeal and our planning was refused. We have no recourse to recover our costs to date and work on the site has stopped. Minister Ronan has recommended that we submit a fresh planning application and take pre-planning advice from his officers. Naturally, we are very disappointed that Minister Ronan saw fit to overturn a decision that a senior planning officer, the Planning Committee together with its current Chairman Mr Robertshaw, and the local commissioners had unanimously approved. The ministerial planning officer had also, on two previous occasions, recommended approval. The general public is not privy to this part of the process, so we are not able to compare his report to Mr Robertshaw with his report to Mr Ronan. However, it is to be hoped that Minister Ronan approached his decision making with an open mind and without consideration of the two previous doleance cases. Q3. The Speaker: Thank you. Just through you, Chairman, then: Minister Ronan issued a refusal which overturned the earlier approval by Mr Robertshaw, (Mrs Jenkins: Correct.) and he set out reasons clearly for refusal, did he? Mrs Jenkins: It is not actually part of the process to If you agree with an inspector, you do not have to set out the reasons. He did, however, point us to a particular paragraph of the inspector s report and did refer us back to his planning officers. Q4. The Speaker: So basically he concurred with the inspector s original recommendation? Mrs Jenkins: Correct. 70 The Speaker: Right, thank you. Q5. The Chairman: Thank you. We will be pleased to accept those additional documents that you offered to us. 4 PBC

5 Thank you for that update and for your expression of understanding that in fact Please accept our appreciation beyond just recognising your understanding that this is about the public interest; it is not directly about your case, but your case is helping us, as politicians and as a parliament, to understand the planning process better and to make recommendations back to Tynwald following our investigation. So the first question, if you do not mind taking the chronological approach, is to take you back to your first application, about which you state that pre-planning advice in 2011 was favourable so you proceeded with the purchase. Please can you tell us a bit more about that part of the process what information was discussed and its importance and relevance in your subsequent experience? Mrs Jenkins: There is a planning charter, which we obviously read. We are not unfamiliar with planning and we know of the problems that can occur, so we made efforts to discuss proposals to buy a particular property with the planning department before we even signed for the property. If I could just pass over to Philip. The Chairman: Okay, thank you. Mr Jenkins. Mr Jenkins: Yes, we contacted the planning department and asked at that point We made it quite clear we had not purchased this property as yet but we would like to know, if we purchased, would we be able to build a slightly larger family house, which was our intention. We met on site. I met with Mr Chris Balmer from the planning department and basically he said that it would be quite favourable, that we could get something built there of a larger design and slightly because it was all about going back into two areas of land and he thought that it was a blank canvas his exact words with a multitude of different designs in the area of buildings. It was favourable, so we went ahead with the purchase on that. Q6. The Chairman: So there was an existing building there and that building was going to be replaced, and also with a larger construct to a different design. This was all considered at that early stage? Mr Jenkins: Yes, and the building was of poor form. It was considered poor form The Chairman: Okay, thank you. Q7. The Speaker: Thank you, Chairman. Was it your understanding of the planning officer s opinion that he could give no guarantees that this was what was likely to be something that would be viewed favourably by the Planning Committee, but it would ultimately be for the Planning Committee to make the decision and potentially they might disagree with the planning officer? Was that your understanding? Mrs Jenkins: It was. However, this is where I think planning falls down, and this is part of the process that needs reviewing, because when you go to speak to a planning officer, by the very nature you are expecting them to be planning, and to find later on in the process that different officers are giving different opinions affects people s long-term aspirations and everything. We know that there are no cast-iron guarantees, but the whole point of going for planning advice is to get guidance. I think, without doubt, had they turned round to us and said, It is out of the question, we would never have gone ahead with the purchase. That is the point. We know that they were not going to guarantee it, but had they said it was out of the question we would not have gone ahead. 5 PBC

6 Q8. The Speaker: The planning guidance that was favourable covered planning policy and existing policies, and your application complied with existing planning policies. Ultimately, that is fairly routine and standard in terms of pre-decision advice but it is for the committee to decide, taking into account objections and other considerations, whether it should be approved. So, in other words, there can never be any guarantee, can there, that a planning officer s advice and guidance will actually translate into a decision in favour of any applicant? Mrs Jenkins: No, and I think that is where the weakness in the system is. I believe there is a weakness in the system there. Q9. The Speaker: You think that is a deficiency in the system? Mrs Jenkins: I do The Chairman: Mr Jenkins. Mr Jenkins: But also you have got the delegated officer powers. At this point, when I met with the adviser from Planning on site, I did not know that it would not be him, on delegated powers, giving me the advice, working on the fact that the neighbouring property, which was much grander in style a similar sort of small house and a much grander building was put up and that was done on delegated powers by a single officer, so I had no reason to believe that we would be going in front of the committee for any Q10. The Speaker: But do you understand that you could not know at that point because you would not know if there would be any objections? If the local authority, (Mr Jenkins: No, exactly.) for example, had objected, it would automatically go to the committee. Mr Jenkins: Yes, but nobody did object. 155 Q11. The Speaker: But that was not your understanding at the time? Mr Jenkins: Yes. 160 The Speaker: Yes, I see. Mr Jenkins: Yes, sorry, on [Inaudible] yes. The Speaker: Okay Q12. The Chairman: Later on in your written submission you mention that you have some points regarding strategic planning policy issues and area plans, which we have begun to get to. Specifically, you talk about frameworks, timescales, white land, landscape character maps, settlements, special housing policies. Could you tell us, please, your thoughts on these topics and why you included those in your statement, before we go on through your experience? Mrs Jenkins: Yes, I am happy to leave this information, because there is obviously quite a lot to take in, but maybe picking up on one point in particular, white land is something that I had not even come across until we got into this process. What we found was that the maps attaching to the Southern Area Plan do not cover the entire area of the south. There are areas that fall between the maps such as map 7, which covers Port Erin and Port St Mary, and map 5, which covers Colby leaving areas which are commonly referred to as white land. 6 PBC

7 180 There are a number of properties beside our own which fall into this particular area of white land, at the junction of Shore Road and Mount Gawne Road, which have recently been subject to planning applications with varying results. For example, the former Motorlands garage application: the planning officer report states, and I quote: On the Area Plan for the South the site is within an area of white land not zoned for any particular kind of development. This was approved on 9th September There was another example two properties down, where the planning officer s report states: The application site is not zoned for development and the creation of an additional dwelling is therefore contrary to both adopted general planning policy within the Isle of Man Strategic Plan and the Area Plan for the South 185 and therefore it was refused on 6th October So we raised concerns about the area of white land with the Director of Planning and Building Control, as we felt that property owners in such areas were disadvantaged by a lack of clear and consistent approach. We also raised concerns about the landscape character maps because these show areas shaded as urban but are classed as countryside and are therefore misleading. Mr Gallagher replied to us that: The Area Plan for the South was approved by Tynwald in February 2013 after following due statutory process for preparation. The Plan comprises a series of proposals which are either site specific or more in the nature of a policy statement for a specific area. There is no statutory requirement to zone every piece of land for a specific purpose and any new development proposals in this locality are now considered within the context of both the Strategic Plan policies and the Area Plan for the South. In this respect I disagree with your assertion that property landowners are disadvantaged. 190 Not all properties, even those of long standing, are classed as residential, and the significance of this classification does not become clear until a planning application is submitted. To give an example, our property was not classed as residential. Our neighbour s property on the opposite side of the road was classed as residential. According to the planning officer s report in respect of his development: The site lies within an area designated on the Isle of Man Planning Scheme (Development Plan) Order 1982 as residential It is important to note that that application was dealt with under delegated powers by a single planning officer and we can only assume that the residential status therefore has a material effect. With the adoption of the Southern Area Plan a number of properties in the Shore Road area were effectively declassified as residential, and when properties are reclassified the proposals are not advertised in the same way as a planning application. Property owners and interested parties would have to study the draft area plans in detail to notice the subtle change. I think what I am trying to say there is that these anomalies within the Southern Area Plan do have an effect on a property owner. Q13. The Chairman: You have made that point very clearly. In fact, it is so clear, your suggestion, that I do not think we need to follow it up so much. I think the learning point is that your suggestion is that it has had an effect on houses in the south that have fallen into these areas, so that should be taken into account in future area plans, but also we have got to consider whether retrospectively it has had an impact in the south, particularly in the cases like your own. Is there anything else my colleagues would like to follow up on that point? Okay. The first application you made was in 2012, and my understanding is that that was refused and a subsequent appeal was unsuccessful in August Can you tell us how the reasons for the refusal compared to the pre-planning advice, for the record? 7 PBC

8 Mrs Jenkins: I think the thread running through all the refusals has been Housing Policy 14 and Environmental Policies 1 and 2. Those different policies are interpreted differently by different planning officers to different degrees, so the inspector found it failed those policies. Q14. The Chairman: Thank you very much. That is a very short summary. Have you had a past career in planning? Or perhaps you have got a future career in planning, if you know the Strategic Plan that well! (Laughter) Mrs Jenkins: No, I don t think so! The Chairman: That first application, made in January Sorry, turning to your second application No, that s it, over Q15. The Speaker: Can I just follow up on a previous point. The first application, you went in to see the planning officer and you got pre-planning advice you have already told us that. You talked it through. In the event, the planning officer did not support the application, notwithstanding your discussion. Why was that? Did it fail to follow the advice of the planning officer? When it came to you making the application, had you missed out some important aspect such that the planning officer was unable to support it? What was your understanding? It must have come as a disappointment that, despite the discussion, the planning officer did not recommend approval when it went to the committee. Mrs Jenkins: Yes, it was a disappointment and a surprise. I think some of these things are subjective, and I think it is the massing and possibly the size of the encroachment. Mr Jenkins: We thought we took on board everything, the advice that we were given. This is part of the reason why I would like to see this whole system change so that you do not come into the same issues again. It would be a much easier thing if you could sit down and say, Well, okay, this is exactly what we want to do, on pre-planning. Mrs Jenkins: I think when the planning officer the pre-advice, they will often say, especially with Housing Policy 14, that you need to put something of traditional design, but that interpretation of what is traditional in the Isle of Man has changed significantly. At that point we were given a photograph of a traditional tholtan, which you would often see in the countryside so, front door, two up, two down. That is not what a modern family home looks like today. I would say that probably the larger housing estates are more what traditional design is on the Isle of Man now. So I think the interpretation of traditional Q16. The Speaker: Were you advised then to follow the guidance notes for houses in the countryside, which give illustrations and criteria to be followed for houses in the countryside? You refer to a tholtan I am not quite familiar with where the site is, but it is a rural site as opposed Mrs Jenkins: No. Mr Jenkins: No. 260 Q17. The Speaker: It is not a rural site? Mrs Jenkins: No. It is at the end of a strip of development with houses of varying sizes from small to large multi-million-pound houses. 8 PBC

9 Q18. The Speaker: So it was the planning officer s advice to you that you design according to the Department s guidance for housing in the countryside? Mr Jenkins: Well, originally, he said to me, It s a blank canvas. That was where we started from: It s a blank canvas. You can pretty much design where you want to go. So we originally came up with a design that was quite modern. It was cuboid, so it was a very square, glass, very modern, very energy-efficient building, which would have looked quite fantastic in that area and it would have been okay with other buildings with all the glass that they have used, the glass atriums that they have used, in the area. You also have, I think, one small tholtan further down the road, but that is the only tholtan in that area. So it would, in a way, have been quite out of place to have put a tholtan there. So it was quite a surprise when he turned round and showed us a picture and said, This is what we d like you to build. That is not a traditional house anymore, but Q19. The Speaker: And that was before you submitted your designs or was it in discussion afterwards? Mr Jenkins: That was after the Mrs Jenkins: I think it evolved during discussion with the agent and Q20. The Speaker: So after that had all happened, you made a second application in December 2012, which was supported by the planning officer. You consciously sat down with the planning officer to ensure that the reasons for refusal the first time would not be repeated, so you changed the design, having taken into account the (Mr Jenkins: Yes.) experience of the first application, (Mrs Jenkins: Correct.) and you followed the advice of the planning officer, and the planning officer clearly supported the application this time. So you went forward with some confidence, I imagine, to what the Planning Committee s decision would be, but it was refused. What reason did the Planning Committee give for disagreeing with the planning officer? Mrs Jenkins: The Planning Committee was split, actually. They did not agree amongst themselves and the Chair of the Planning Committee effectively had the casting vote. His words were that if it was larger he would have seen his way to support it. Q21. The Speaker: If it was larger? Mr Jenkins: Yes, that was his When he had the deciding vote, he just said, If it was larger, I may have been able to see myself to support this. Q22. The Speaker: If it was larger? Mr Jenkins: But then he decided against. Mrs Jenkins: I think he was referring to the size of the plot 310 The Speaker: Oh, I see, yes. Mrs Jenkins: as opposed to the size of the house. The size of the house on the plot. 315 Q23. The Speaker: So it was over-intensive use of the site, essentially? 9 PBC

10 Mrs Jenkins: No. Mr Jenkins: No, it wasn t. No, there was plenty of The plot ratio was correct Mrs Jenkins: I don t know perhaps you could ask him. Q24. The Speaker: Okay, so that was the reason. And you are clear, are you, why it went to the Planning Committee in the first place and was not determined by the planning officer? Were you clear that it would go to the committee and the decision would not be made by the planning officer? Mrs Jenkins: Certainly the second time. Once you have had a refusal, it is assumed it will automatically go to the committee Q25. The Speaker: It would automatically go to the committee. That s fine. In your written submission you say that the planning officer had to argue against a written report at the subsequent appeal. Can you just tell us a bit about that? Mrs Jenkins: Well, the planning officer wrote his report in favour, but because the committee found against it, when we appealed You then go to the appeal hearing and the Planning Committee s officer then argues policy, but your original planning officer who dealt with your case and who wrote the report in favour does not even attend, so you are left without being able to argue against policy because you have not got the support of your original planning officer. Q26. The Speaker: It was a different planning officer at appeal who argued the committee s case? Mrs Jenkins: Yes. Q27. The Speaker: You think it shouldn t have been? You think it should have been the same officer? Mrs Jenkins: I think the same officer is compromised because they are then having to The Speaker: Argue against themselves. Mrs Jenkins: argue against themselves, exactly Q28. The Speaker: Yes. So it is a professional duty of the planning officer at appeal to make the case on behalf of the Planning Committee. That is what one would expect. That would be better done, would it not, if it was a different planning officer, for the reasons you have just said? Mrs Jenkins: Yes. Q29. The Speaker: So why did you say in the letter the planning officer had to argue against their written report? 365 Mrs Jenkins: Because the planning officer who supported our application interpreted the policies one way; when we got to the appeal, the committee s planning officer argued it the opposite way. 10 PBC

11 370 Q30. The Speaker: Yes, which he would be obliged to do because it was the Planning Committee s case that he was putting forward. (Mrs Jenkins: Correct.) Do you understand that the planning inspector would nonetheless have access to all the papers and be able to see the first planning officer s original arguments in favour? Mrs Jenkins: Yes Q31. The Speaker: Yes, okay. Do you have any other thoughts about the Planning Committee and its procedures that you have not mentioned yet? You make a number of very clear points in your letter and we have discussed some of them now. Is there anything else you want to emphasise about the procedures? Mrs Jenkins: About the actual procedures? Mr Jenkins: When we had the site visit that was that site visit on the second planning application the first thing that was noted was that the committee was given the incorrect plan. It was a hand-drawn plan of the area that was involved and it was actually about 80% larger than what we were asking for, so when the committee turned up on site for a site visit they were immediately thinking it was a much larger project than it actually was, which was one of the things that I was quite shocked about. And then when we had the meeting and I unlocked the house so they could see the inside of the house and the issues that were there, the Planning Committee manager brought the wrong files to the site visit, so I could not prove that what I was saying was correct; and as you are not allowed to actually talk to the committee on a site visit, other than to answer the questions you are asked, you cannot actually put your hand up and say, Sorry, you have got the wrong plans there, because you are not allowed to talk. Q32. The Speaker: So at what point was it known that they were looking at the wrong plans? Was that long afterwards? Mrs Jenkins: Well, if I can put Philip s comments another way, when they turned up on site And this goes back to the extension of the curtilage: because we own the fields behind the property, this is one of the fundamental issues, how far the curtilage is to go back. From our first application we had significantly reduced the curtilage on the second application, but the Planning Committee had the curtilage of the original, so the extension to the plot was approximately 80% larger than what our second planning application was actually for. We subsequently sent a complaint to the Department about this on 25th March 2013, as we felt that this had a material effect on the outcome of that decision at that Planning Committee. Q33. The Chairman: That is bringing us on to another topic we wanted to ask about. Has the complaint process been helpful to you in your process? How does the complaints process interact with the actual application for a planning decision? Mrs Jenkins: Well, if I can go back as far as 1988, Mr Peter Karran tabled a motion to Tynwald that an ombudsman be introduced. This was also one of the recommendations of the Select Committee into the Redress of Grievance of Donald Whittaker. I understand that a Tynwald Commissioner for Administration Bill refers to the appointment of a Commissioner for Administration, but as highlighted in Tynwald late last year, this position has not been filled. So, in effect, there is not a mechanism whereby there is an ombudsman to deal with these sort of issues and we would support that, particularly when we come on to discussing doleance matters. 11 PBC

12 Q34. The Chairman: Okay, thank you very much because you do not mention the complaint, I do not believe, in connection with the second petition, but there was a complaint at that stage as well. Mrs Jenkins: Yes, I will leave all this documentation with you. Q35. The Chairman: Okay, because I am mindful that a planning applicant who is looking for a positive decision on a planning application might be hesitant, or reluctant even, to make a complaint at that stage of the process. That was in your mind, was it? Mr Jenkins: Yes. Q36. The Speaker: Can I just come back to the refusal at appeal of the second application. The inspector recommended refusal and the Minister upheld the inspector s recommendation. The reasons for refusal did you accept them; or, following from what you have said about being given inaccurate plans, was there a failure in the process itself to take account of relevant facts; or were the reasons for refusal separate to that? Mrs Jenkins: Separate to that, yes. That is a side issue. We accept that the appeals process was robust and looked at everything. The Speaker: Yes, okay, thank you. The Chairman: Thank you Q37. Mr Joughin: And then they would not accept the proper plans before they would give their decision? Mrs Jenkins: No, I think, from what we have gathered from the Planning Committee process, although applicants give in detailed plans and site plans, the summary that is given to the Planning Committee members are site plans drawn up by the Department, and if there is an error in that there is very little chance for an applicant to point that out to the Planning Committee. Mr Joughin: And that would be a failing of The Speaker: Noted, that. Q38. Mr Joughin: Moving on to your third application, made in December 2015, it was supported by the planning officer and approved by the Planning Committee but the one interested party, who had not to your knowledge previously indicated any issues, lodged objections within the allowed 21-day period. Can you explain what happened, particularly at the appeal hearing, after which the application was recommended for refusal? Mrs Jenkins: Okay. At both the first and the second applications a neighbour had lodged a letter to be noted as an interested party, and that is where it ended. There was no indication either way whether they supported or objected. The crux of the planning issues is the encroachment. So the first application was for a larger encroachment, the second for a reduced and the third for a negligible encroachment. 12 PBC

13 Mr Jenkins: Each time, we were trying to pull the building towards the original footprint. We were trying to take it away from the neighbours house to make it more balanced and pleasurable to look at. It just looks nicer. Q39. The Chairman: And out of the agricultural land behind? Mrs Jenkins: Yes. Mr Jenkins: Yes Mrs Jenkins: So it came as a bit of a surprise to us that when the neighbour objected there were 34 pages of objections; and the main issues involved items that had been covered by the first, second and the third applications, so there had been an opportunity for him to raise his objections on any of those applications. Mr Jenkins: Also, before the first application, on the advice of our agent, our architect, I took the drawings we both took the drawings and met the neighbours and shared the drawings, and we had a conversation and a coffee with them in their house, and at no point did they actually share with us that they would not like it. We were doing that so that we could find out, and if they did not like it we could change the design because that is how we work. That is how we felt it would be fair, because it is there forever once it is built and we were just trying to keep all the neighbours happy. But no one showed any inkling that they did not like it. Mrs Jenkins: I think and this is a failing of the current planning system that interested parties who wish to object have the opportunity to know what the planning officer s recommendation is going to be to the Planning Committee. There is an agenda that is published in advance and they have got the opportunity to state their reasons before the decision is made. Those given interested party status who do not lodge objections before the determination afford the applicant no opportunity to have discourse, to amend designs if necessary, and nor does it provide the planning officer or the Planning Committee an opportunity to consider the points. I think this may be used for malicious intent at very little cost to the objector. Q40. The Chairman: So have you ever thought to remove the third-party right at that stage? Is that what you are suggesting? Mrs Jenkins: No, that is not what I am suggesting. What I am suggesting is that you should state your objections before it is considered by the Planning Committee. Mr Jenkins: If you have In this instance, the neighbour received interested party status, thereby he knew all of the issues, so he was aware of everything. Mrs Jenkins: By doing that, he has acknowledged that he had seen the plans and therefore it can only be malicious to not put those objections in beforehand. Q41. The Speaker: So what there should be no third-party right of appeal, in your view, if that third party has not previously made representations to the Planning Committee? Mr Jenkins: Yes. 520 Mrs Jenkins: That they are likely to object. Q42. The Chairman: Just so that there is parity between both parties. 13 PBC

14 Q43. Mr Joughin: There is a failing in the system [Inaudible] Mrs Jenkins: I think so, yes. Q44. The Speaker: Are you aware that there is no third-party right of appeal in other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom? Mrs Jenkins: No, but I would like to hope that the Isle of Man can be a leader in this and not follow what is going on there. Q45. The Speaker: There is a right of appeal but not by third parties, just the applicant Mrs Jenkins: I think it is good in a democracy to allow everybody to have an equal point of view, and I am sure that if we were sat on the other side of the fence we would be equally outraged if we had not had an opportunity. But the point is that to lodge an interest and then wait for the decision and then to lodge 34 pages of objections is an abuse of that system, in our view. Mr Jenkins: And to wait three months to do it. Q46. The Speaker: Yes. Through you, Chairman, if the third party had not gone to appeal, the decision would have stood. The fact that it did go to appeal, and without having seen the reasons for refusal, can you just tell us essentially what the reasons for refusal were? Was it flaws in the decision, the thought process of the Planning Committee and the planning officer, or was it new evidence brought up by the third party that influenced the inspector? Mrs Jenkins: No, it came down to exactly the same issues: Environmental Policies 1 and 2 and Housing Policy 14. If the Committee looks in detail at those policies you will see that they are not black and white. It is open to interpretation, and that is the problem with the system. The Chairman: Thank you The Speaker: Thank you. Q47. Mr Joughin: Could you explain to me what happened next when the recommendation was passed to the Minister to determine? Mrs Jenkins: Yes. It went to appeal. The inspector, to our surprise, disagreed with the Planning Committee and the planning officer and recommended it for refusal. However, at the time it was under the DOI and Mr Gawne delegated his responsibility for the decision to Mr Robertshaw. Mr Robertshaw went against the recommendation of the inspector and upheld the Planning Committee s decision and effectively passed the property. However, the letter that was issued passing the property was not issued in the correct way the reasons were not given and therefore that left the decision open to a doleance. Q48. Mr Joughin: Right, okay. I think we have already covered this, actually: do you have any other thoughts about the proceedings relating to objectors and interested parties and appeals? Mrs Jenkins: Interested-party status we have some views on, not particularly relating to this because there is no doubt that our neighbour had an interest in it, but I have, during my investigations, come across other cases where interested-party status had been given and it 14 PBC

15 differs with the guidance for interested-party status. So I would like the Committee to review that side of it. Q49. The Chairman: In the case with Mr Robertshaw being the delegated member who received the independent planning inspector s report, the way that you have described it two issues jump out to me straightaway. The first one is the political Member deciding against the recommendation of the independent planning inspector, and the second one is the procedures to do with that process and the notifications and the decisions. Am I right to see that they are two very important issues the first question; and the second question is have I missed any issues, are there any other issues? Mrs Jenkins: No, those are the crucial The Chairman: Those are the crucial ones Q50. The Speaker: Would you accept that the ability of a politician actually to go against the independent inspector s recommendation, which in this particular case was to your advantage another way round you would not have been so happy with the political decision Does that not illustrate the value of having a political final step in this when the matters are so subjective? As you have described, the planning officer and the Planning Committee formed one viewpoint, the planning inspector formed a different one on the balance is it not right that there should be a political person to adjudicate as the final step? Mrs Jenkins: Well, we would hope that the process that we are going through now would take views and come to conclusions, and our personal view is that it should not come down to one individual. We are referring to the Minister taking the decision, but in actual fact the Minister has a ministerial planning adviser. We will come on to this in a minute because we have obviously been through two doleance cases. In the first recommendation we can only assume that the ministerial planning adviser wrote a report for the Minister and recommended that he go against the inspector. When it then went to doleance, again Mr Robertshaw approved it, so that advice must have been the same, but the last doleance case, we can only assume that that report must have reversed the previous two. So you have got the same ministerial planning adviser advising two different Ministers well, three, but it so happens that the first two are the same and the result at the end of it was the complete opposite, so the system is not working. Q51. The Chairman: Can I come back to this point, referring you back to something you said earlier I think earlier on you suggested I think it was at the pre-application stage You talked about it being regrettable that certain things were in private and you did not have access to them, and that is a point that has come up again now. Is that something that you are suggesting, that as much as possible the decision process should be open at least to the applicants and the objectors? Mrs Jenkins: Absolutely. We have no idea what that report said from the ministerial planning adviser Q52. The Chairman: Okay, and then the second point, and it has come up in a few things that you have said Government policy now, I think, is to concentrate even more on pre-application advice and working for applicants for larger properties and for nationally important projects and nationally important planning exercises. Is what you are saying that we need to think about whether that is fair on smaller people as well? 15 PBC

16 Mrs Jenkins: Yes, I would like to highlight a couple of instances, if I might, on this so-called special housing policy. There is a view, I think, amongst the general public that if a house is large enough and expensive enough you can get it through planning. Personally, I do not agree with that. I think the perception is partly due to this delegated officer route and also If I could just cover a couple of cases, there is an application called Spring Waters, where the DED produced a letter in support of that application and it was passed on economic grounds. But similarly there is an application for Corley Farm, where the appellants did not put forward any personal circumstances or financial and functional reasons to justify the erection of a dwelling in the countryside, and despite the inspector recommending its refusal the Minister passed it. So these inconsistencies appear to exist even within the interpretation of the Government s own economics ground policy, and that is not fair to the general public. Q53. The Speaker: Would these inconsistencies be removed then if the inspector s decision was not simply a recommendation but a final decision? Would you have confidence then that there would be consistency applied across the board? Mr Jenkins: I personally do not believe that one person should have that much power. I think it should go back in front of a committee, as it is heard by a committee. They have heard all of the evidence, they have heard the policy, they have interpreted the policy. Then to get one person to come along from England to interpret that policy the opposite way, whether it is for or against you, but to be completely the opposite and not support the advice that was locally given Q54. The Speaker: Where would it then end if you had? Mr Jenkins: Well, I just think it would be better served if the appeal system was a committee 655 The Speaker: Oh, rather than an individual. Mr Jenkins: rather than one person brought in from England. It just seems 660 Q55. The Speaker: An appeal panel, in other words? Mr Jenkins: Yes. It would just make more sense than Q56. The Speaker: So separate from the original Planning Committee, presumably 665 Mr Jenkins: Yes. The Speaker: an appeal panel. 670 Mrs Jenkins: There is an important legal matter that needs sorting out on these issues, and it dates back to the Manx National Heritage case and a decision by Deemster Kerruish. He confirmed in that decision that the Minister on a planning appeal is limited to consideration of the planning inspector s report and that the Minister is unable to consider documents and materials other than that report. However, Minister Ronan, as recently as the House of Keys on 3rd November, said, and I quote: 16 PBC

17 Certainly in regard to the material based on any planning decision made, reviewing of plans or site visits, I think what it clearly states is that the Minister can look at anything that is reasonable or also has material considerations in respect to that planning decision That is not what that ruling by Deemster Kerruish is saying. I am no legal expert, but the Deemster Kerruish ruling is basically amending primary legislation, and so we would hope that the Committee is going to look at that, because I think these doleance issues come back to that one case. Q57. The Chairman: I will pick you up on that. I think a case amends in itself primary legislation, but certainly it is the role of a parliament to review the extent to which it impacts on it. Given we are now talking about independent planning inspectors and earlier on, Mr Jenkins, you described them as coming over or foreign, or something from England (Mr Jenkins: Yes.) have you anything you want to share with the Committee about views on whether or not they actually know the local situation? Because, conceivably, three or four people who have been doing this job for a long time will actually build up an absolutely substantial and significant knowledge of the communities they are making recommendations about. Mrs Jenkins: I think it is an important point that the role of the local commissioners There is a lot of local knowledge which is not being taken into account in planning matters and I think the views of the commissioners are not, quite often, being taken into account. Q58. The Chairman: Okay, but you did not, yourself, see any evidence that the English people, when they come over, actually do not know the situation? Mr Jenkins: Yes, one instance in the I cannot remember which was it [Inaudible] said it was a gateway to a settlement. There was some terminology used that was wrong, and it was later proven it is wrong. (The Chairman: Okay.) So there are areas, especially with the other thing, where you have a mixture of land where you do not know whether it is white land or So, again, it is interpretation. Q59. The Chairman: Okay, so that is one question, then, but going beyond that, your view is that involving local knowledge through local commissioners would be a way forward that is what you are suggesting to us. Thank you. Q60. Mr Joughin: When you began building work on the site in 2014, at the end of October Mrs Jenkins: Can I just correct you there? Not building work. We cleared the site; not building work. (Interjection by Mr Jenkins) Q61. Mr Joughin: But you started work on the site (Laughter) (Mrs Jenkins: My fault!) in 2014 and at the end of October 2014 you were advised that a petition of doleance claim against the Department of Infrastructure had been lodged by your neighbours. Can you advise why you did not know about this sooner, and what happened next? Mrs Jenkins: The doleance case was brought against the Department, the Minister and the decision maker. Ironically, even though it is our application, we are just an interested party, so any pre-action letters we were not privy to. 17 PBC

18 Q62. Mr Joughin: Because it was against Infrastructure and not you, so you had no involvement? 725 Mrs Jenkins: Yes. Q63. Mr Joughin: To the best of your knowledge, why were your neighbours able to issue a petition of doleance? Mrs Jenkins: The first petition of doleance was because Mr Robertshaw when he issued his decision, the letter did not give the reasons for going against the inspector. That is what meant that that could be challenged. Mr Jenkins: So it is two ways: if the Minister goes with the appeals inspector s decision, he does not have to issue reasons; if he goes against the decision, he has to issue reasons and he has to issue reasons immediately with the letter it cannot be the next day or two hours later, it has to be given at the same time. Mrs Jenkins: The procedures are laid down in the Town and Country Planning Development Procedure (No. 2) Order 2013, and that states very clearly you must issue reasons. They were issued by the Department two weeks later. Q64. Mr Joughin: So it was a clerical error again, and that was to get his foot in the door with a petition of doleance? Mrs Jenkins: Correct. Q65. The Chairman: And given the experience you have had and the expertise you have built up through that experience, can you confirm that when the independent inspector s report is used for the decision, the report itself is published and the independent inspector, in your case and in all cases, would give reasons or issues to be taken into account for both sides of the argument? (Mrs Jenkins: Yes.) So it makes it easy for the Minister or the delegated Member to decide either way, despite recommending. Mrs Jenkins: Yes, I think sometimes some cases are very finely balanced and it is the weight that you give to certain arguments. This is why you get these anomalies in the system. Q66. The Chairman: There is one very interesting statement in your written submission, especially given that you have linked this to complaints and the ombudsman and the Whittaker recommendations to revisit the doleance process, which is that in November 2014, when the Department agreed to revisit the appeal determination, you were given legal advice by your advocate to maintain a neutral stance. I just wanted to understand that a bit more, given your comments about complaints and the doleance process and the Whittaker recommendations and so on. Mrs Jenkins: As an interested party, the case was not brought against us. However, we could have gone in on the case and given evidence, but had the case gone against us we would have also been liable for costs. I think this is where it relates to the Whittaker Select Committee. I read that in detail and it became very clear that it would be very unwise to go in on a doleance case where there was every chance you would lose. Q67. The Chairman: Okay. Did your advocate bring to your attention any more recent cases, or even any cases, where costs have been awarded against an interested party like yourselves? 18 PBC

19 Mrs Jenkins: Yes, there was one down at Castletown. Q68. The Chairman: Okay, thank you. The Minister reaffirmed his decision in March 2015 and you recommenced work on site. When did you learn that the second petition of doleance claim against the Department of Infrastructure had been lodged by your neighbours, and what reason was given this time? Mrs Jenkins: We only found out about it, of course, when we got served the papers as being an interested party. Q69. The Chairman: The same as the previous time? Mrs Jenkins: Yes. Q71. The Chairman: What reasons were there for the doleance this time? Mrs Jenkins: On the first case, all parties agreed that the decision would be remitted back to the original decision maker, Mr Robertshaw. On the second doleance, the first part of that doleance was that Mr Robertshaw by that time had resigned as Minister and was now a Member, and therefore the original I do not know the wording that it was invalid, because he was no longer a Minister. Q71. The Chairman: Okay. So it was not referred to him because he was (Interjection by Mr Jenkins) Chair of the Planning Committee or anything like that; it was referred to him as the person who had made the previous decision. Mr Jenkins: And I believe that the neighbour s legal advice actually asked for the same person to rehear it, which was a surprise. Q72. Mr Joughin: It was deemed invalid then, because he was no longer? Mrs Jenkins: There were other parts of it as well, and the more we delved into it the more we realised that even if the Department had defended that point the case could fall down on other points. Q73. The Chairman: So, in your view, the way you are presenting now, it seems that the procedures are becoming more and more important as the case goes on. Mrs Jenkins: Yes, more and more involved. 815 Q74. The Chairman: Okay. And you state in your written submission that in July 2015 the Department again agreed to revisit the appeal determination. I just wanted to know when you heard the results of that. Mrs Jenkins: That was on 17th December, some five months later, when we got Mr Ronan s 820 Q75. The Chairman: So this is the update that you gave us earlier on at the beginning of the hearing. Mrs Jenkins: Yes. 19 PBC